Posts tagged Ward

“The Pride of Wahlberg”

THE FIGHTER is a terrific knockout of a boxing movie about two real-life brothers from Lowell, Massachusetts, who had somewhat of a successful boxing career, one more than the other.

Mark Wahlberg produced the film and also stars as Micky Ward, the younger brother, Christian Bale stars as Dicky Eklund, the older brother, and Melissa Leo stars as Alice, their mother, who had them with different husbands, along with seven daughters.

The three major stars are contenders for acting awards in 2011, also including Amy Adams, who plays Micky’s girlfriend, Charlene.

The film begins in 1993 in Lowell with an HBO film crew interviewing Dicky, who is sitting on a couch and talking into the camera.

Dicky, who is called “The Pride of Lowell” because he is said to have once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard down in a fight, believes that he is being filmed because he is planning to make a comeback, but HBO has a different story in mind, which we learn later, also along with doubt about Dicky’s knockdown of Leonard.

Micky comes into the frame and sits down, and Dicky says, “This is my younger brother. I taught him everything he knows.”

Micky is also a welterweight boxer, Dicky is his trainer, and their mother is the manager of both their boxing careers.

However, Dicky is also a crack addict now, he is undependable and sometimes goes off on his own schedule, and Micky has lost three fights in a row.

Then Micky meets Charlene, who is working in a bar, and they start going out together. Charlene is also brought by Micky to family meetings, and to say that his family is “quite a family” would be a huge understatement.

Micky’s next fight takes an unexpected turn when his opponent catches the flu and can’t fight, but the promoter finds a substitute boxer who is just out of prison and is 20 pounds heavier than Micky.

But if Micky doesn’t fight, nobody gets paid, and so Micky takes one for the family.

However, Micky doesn’t like the way things are going with his career and especially with his family’s involvement with his career, and so he gets rid of Dicky and Alice, even though she has been managing both of them for 15 years.

THE FIGHTER can be called “The Pride of Wahlberg.”

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”